Stephen Henry
Encyclopedia
Stephen Henry is an award-winning theatre director and producer.
, graduating in 1998.
's Love! Valour! Compassion!
which won both The Best Ensemble Award and The Best Actor Award at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival
. The acclaimed production transferred to the Tristan Bates Theatre, London and sold out its limited run. He followed this inaugural production with Frank Wedekind
's Spring Awakening
at the Jermyn Street Theatre
, London receiving The Bulldog Prinsep Theatrical Fund Award for New Directors. Henry's interpretation of Spring Awakening later moved to the Tristan Bates Theatre, London. He also directed the UK premiere production of To Have and To Hold by Paul Harris, with Cory English
, and the European premiere of Terrence McNally's passion play Corpus Christi
, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1999, with Stephen Billington
and Mel Raido
. The production transferred to the Pleasance Theatre, London, produced by Guy Chapman Associates and Sarah Earl Productions, breaking box-office records for the theatre and attracting political demonstrations and a fatwa
for its author.
Henry’s Oxford Playhouse revival of Another Country
, by Julian Mitchell
, reopened the Arts Theatre
in the West End where he also developed a new play by Sam McCartney, Body Language (Being Olivia). Other projects include ecstasy + GRACE, by James Martin Charlton
, at the Finborough Theatre
, London where he produced Pains of Youth by Bruckner starring Stephen Billington
, Stevie Jay in Life, Love and other works in progress and The Silent Treatment by Chris Pickles. He directed rehearsed workshops of Fuddy Meers
by David Lindsay-Abaire
for the National Theatre Studio/Southwark Playhouse
and The Lightning Child by Elizabeth Hopley at The Old Vic.
Henry directed a workshop of Five Flights by Canadian author Adam Bock
at the Pleasance Theatre, with comic Scott Capurro
, and developed Matthew Todd’s new play Blowing Whistles, at the Jermyn Street Theatre for Trilby Productions. His King's Head Theatre production of The Lisbon Traviata
, starring David Bamber
and Marcus D'Amico
, was voted The Best Off-West End Production 2004 Whatsonstage Awards. He was also the original director of the London production of Visiting Mr. Green, by Jeff Baron, at the New End Theatre
and has directed numerous productions and scene studies including Uncle Vanya
, Kiss of the Spider Woman
, and My Heart is a Suitcase for Drama Studio London
where he works regularly directing and teaching acting and theatre directing.
Henry worked as a volunteer for the London Pride Festival (Theatre) 2004/2005 and host/produced The Pride Season of Theatre with main productions including the page-to-stage adaptations of Go Fish
! (Zip Antics Theatre Company) and New Boy
(Questors Theatre), a new play, Citizenship
, by Mark Ravenhill
as part of the National Theatre
Connections Programme, and L’homosexual by Copi directed by Carole Menduni. The season also included Fiona Staniland as Darlene Meatrick, and Nathan Martin in I wish it so! and The International Play Competition presenting rehearsed readings of 12 new plays. The first Pride Theatre Season also included Justin Bond
in concert at Soho Theatre
and Hedwig and the Angry Inch
at Heaven Nightclub, with David Bedella
.
prior to a transfer to Dublin, Ireland and a new play, The Baby Box, by Chris Leicester in London during 2008. For Drama Studio London
he directed Oscar Wilde
’s An Ideal Husband
and Noel Coward
's Blithe Spirit
. In 2010 he directed Anton Chekhov
's The Cherry Orchard
and the European premiere of Paula Vogel
's new play The Long Christmas Ride Home
, in London.
Henry is Founder/Artistic Director for The Theatre 28 Ensemble, Great Britain, and a member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain. He is a registered drama teacher at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
.
Early life
Henry read Drama and Education at St Mary's University College and trained as a theatre director at Drama Studio LondonDrama Studio London
Drama Studio London is a drama school based in Ealing, London, England, United Kingdom. It is accredited by the National Council for Drama Training, London and is a Member of the Conference of Drama Schools...
, graduating in 1998.
Early career
Henry started his career by directing, for his graduate school production, Terrence McNallyTerrence McNally
Terrence McNally is an American playwright who has received four Tony Awards, an Emmy, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a member of the Council of the...
's Love! Valour! Compassion!
Love! Valour! Compassion!
Love! Valour! Compassion! is a play by Terrence McNally. Its off-Broadway premiere took place at the Manhattan Theatre Club on October 11, 1994, in a staging by Joe Mantello that ran for 72 performances...
which won both The Best Ensemble Award and The Best Actor Award at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. The acclaimed production transferred to the Tristan Bates Theatre, London and sold out its limited run. He followed this inaugural production with Frank Wedekind
Frank Wedekind
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind , usually known as Frank Wedekind, was a German playwright...
's Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening is a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 1892 German play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. It features music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Set in late-19th century Germany, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of...
at the Jermyn Street Theatre
Jermyn Street Theatre
Jermyn Street Theatre is a performance venue situated in Jermyn Street, London.Formerly a restaurant, under the leadership of Howard Jameson, it was transformed into a 70-seat studio theatre right in the heart of London's West End...
, London receiving The Bulldog Prinsep Theatrical Fund Award for New Directors. Henry's interpretation of Spring Awakening later moved to the Tristan Bates Theatre, London. He also directed the UK premiere production of To Have and To Hold by Paul Harris, with Cory English
Cory English
Cory English , is an American actor.Born into a blue collar family in upstate New York, Cory was the youngest of four boys. Cory attended Wayne Central in Ontario, New York...
, and the European premiere of Terrence McNally's passion play Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (play)
Corpus Christi is a passion play by Terrence McNally dramatizing the story of Jesus and the Apostles. Written in 1997 and first staged in New York in 1998, it depicts Jesus and the Apostles as gay men living in modern-day Texas. It utilizes modern devices like television with anachronisms like...
, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1999, with Stephen Billington
Stephen Billington
Stephen Billington is a British actor, best known for playing Greg Kelly in Coronation Street . He has worked with many leading film directors, including Peter Greenaway, Franco Zeffirelli, and Mel Gibson...
and Mel Raido
Mel Raido
Mel Raido is a half Spanish and half Greek actor. Raido moved to London three years later. After taking elocution lessons, he started to become hooked by the acting bug at school and studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.-Education and career:He studied at Webber Douglas Academy of...
. The production transferred to the Pleasance Theatre, London, produced by Guy Chapman Associates and Sarah Earl Productions, breaking box-office records for the theatre and attracting political demonstrations and a fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
for its author.
Henry’s Oxford Playhouse revival of Another Country
Another Country
Another Country may refer to:* Another Country , by James Baldwin* Another Country , by Julian Mitchell* Another Country , an adaptation of the play* Another Country...
, by Julian Mitchell
Julian Mitchell
Julian Mitchell FRSL , full name Charles Julian Humphrey Mitchell, is an English playwright, screenwriter and occasional novelist...
, reopened the Arts Theatre
Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. It now operates as the West End's smallest commercial receiving house.-History:...
in the West End where he also developed a new play by Sam McCartney, Body Language (Being Olivia). Other projects include ecstasy + GRACE, by James Martin Charlton
James Martin Charlton
James Martin Charlton is an English playwright, theatre director and filmmaker. He was born in Romford, Greater London, United Kingdom in 1966.-Career:...
, at the Finborough Theatre
Finborough Theatre
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty seat theatre in the Earls Court area of London, United Kingdom , which presents new British writing, UK and premieres of new plays, primarily from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Scotland and Ireland, music theatre, and rarely seen...
, London where he produced Pains of Youth by Bruckner starring Stephen Billington
Stephen Billington
Stephen Billington is a British actor, best known for playing Greg Kelly in Coronation Street . He has worked with many leading film directors, including Peter Greenaway, Franco Zeffirelli, and Mel Gibson...
, Stevie Jay in Life, Love and other works in progress and The Silent Treatment by Chris Pickles. He directed rehearsed workshops of Fuddy Meers
Fuddy Meers
Fuddy Meers is an American play by David Lindsay-Abaire. It tells the story of an amnesiac, Claire, who awakens each morning as a blank slate on which her husband and teenage son must imprint the facts of her life. One morning Claire is abducted by a limping, lisping man who claims her husband...
by David Lindsay-Abaire
David Lindsay-Abaire
David Lindsay-Abaire is an American playwright and lyricist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play Rabbit Hole, which also earned several Tony Award nominations.-Early life and education:...
for the National Theatre Studio/Southwark Playhouse
Southwark Playhouse
-History:Southwark Playhouse Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by Juliet Alderdice, Tom Wilson & Mehmet Ergen. They identified the need for a high quality accessible theatre which would also act as a major resource for the community...
and The Lightning Child by Elizabeth Hopley at The Old Vic.
Henry directed a workshop of Five Flights by Canadian author Adam Bock
Adam Bock
Adam Bock is a Canadian playwright currently living in the United States. Adam was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is an artistic associate of the Shotgun Players, an award-winning San Francisco theater group. His play Medea Eats was produced in 2000 by Clubbed Thumb, who subsequently...
at the Pleasance Theatre, with comic Scott Capurro
Scott Capurro
-Television appearances:-Stage appearances:-Personal life:In October 2006 Capurro purchased a flat in Bethnal Green and considers himself a London resident.-External links:* * *...
, and developed Matthew Todd’s new play Blowing Whistles, at the Jermyn Street Theatre for Trilby Productions. His King's Head Theatre production of The Lisbon Traviata
The Lisbon Traviata
The Lisbon Traviata is a 1989 play by Terrence McNally.It focuses on two of the playwright's favorite subjects, gay relationships and Maria Callas, and includes one of his most memorable characters, flamboyantly bitchy and viciously wicked opera queen Mendy...
, starring David Bamber
David Bamber
David James Bamber is an English actor, known for his television and theatre work. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Early years:...
and Marcus D'Amico
Marcus D'Amico
Marcus D'Amico is a film, TV and stage actor best known for his role as Michael "Mouse" Tolliver in the original Tales of the City miniseries in 1993. However, he has appeared in theater productions for over 15 years...
, was voted The Best Off-West End Production 2004 Whatsonstage Awards. He was also the original director of the London production of Visiting Mr. Green, by Jeff Baron, at the New End Theatre
New End Theatre
The New End Theatre, Hampstead, was a 80-seat fringe theatre venue in London, England, located in the London Borough of Camden which operated from 1974 until 2011. It was listed widely on the internet, including with the New York Times....
and has directed numerous productions and scene studies including Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
, Kiss of the Spider Woman
Kiss of the Spider Woman (play)
The 1983 stage play Kiss of the Spider Woman is an adaptation of Manuel Puig's same title novel by the author himself.Novelist, screenwriter and playwright Manuel Puig wrote two plays while living in exile...
, and My Heart is a Suitcase for Drama Studio London
Drama Studio London
Drama Studio London is a drama school based in Ealing, London, England, United Kingdom. It is accredited by the National Council for Drama Training, London and is a Member of the Conference of Drama Schools...
where he works regularly directing and teaching acting and theatre directing.
Henry worked as a volunteer for the London Pride Festival (Theatre) 2004/2005 and host/produced The Pride Season of Theatre with main productions including the page-to-stage adaptations of Go Fish
Go Fish
- Basic game :Using a standard 52-card deck, five cards are dealt to each player, or seven if there are four or fewer. The remaining card pack is shared between the players, usually sprawled out in a non-orderly pile referenced as the "ocean" or "pool"....
! (Zip Antics Theatre Company) and New Boy
New Boy
New Boy is a novel, published in 1996, written by British novelist William Sutcliffe.The book is largely autobiographical, mixing fact and fiction...
(Questors Theatre), a new play, Citizenship
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
, by Mark Ravenhill
Mark Ravenhill
Mark Ravenhill is an English playwright, actor and journalist.His most famous plays include Shopping and Fucking , Some Explicit Polaroids and Mother Clap's Molly House . He made his acting debut in his monologue Product, at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe...
as part of the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
Connections Programme, and L’homosexual by Copi directed by Carole Menduni. The season also included Fiona Staniland as Darlene Meatrick, and Nathan Martin in I wish it so! and The International Play Competition presenting rehearsed readings of 12 new plays. The first Pride Theatre Season also included Justin Bond
Justin Bond
Justin Vivian Bond , formerly simply Justin Bond, is an American singer-songwriter, performance artist, occasional actor and Radical Faerie. Described as a "fixture of the New York avant-garde", Bond arose to notability playing the role of Kiki DuRayne in the drag cabaret act Kiki and Herb from the...
in concert at Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre is a theatre in the eponymous Soho district of the City of Westminster. It presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret....
and Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (musical)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical about a fictional rock and roll band fronted by an East German transgender singer. The text is by John Cameron Mitchell, and the music and lyrics are by Stephen Trask. The musical premiered in 1998 and has been performed throughout the world in hundreds...
at Heaven Nightclub, with David Bedella
David Bedella
David Bedella is an American TV and musical stage actor, perhaps best known for his Olivier award winning role in the controversial Jerry Springer - The Opera...
.
Recent years
In recently years he has directed The Irish Curse by Martin Casella at the Edinburgh FestivalEdinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
prior to a transfer to Dublin, Ireland and a new play, The Baby Box, by Chris Leicester in London during 2008. For Drama Studio London
Drama Studio London
Drama Studio London is a drama school based in Ealing, London, England, United Kingdom. It is accredited by the National Council for Drama Training, London and is a Member of the Conference of Drama Schools...
he directed Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
’s An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour...
and Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...
. In 2010 he directed Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
and the European premiere of Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel
Paula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive.-Early years:...
's new play The Long Christmas Ride Home
The Long Christmas Ride Home
The Long Christmas Ride Home is a one-act full-length play by American playwright Paula Vogel that was first performed in 2003. It dramatises a road trip by two parents and their three young children to visit grandparents for the Christmas holiday, as well as the emotional turmoil undergone by...
, in London.
Henry is Founder/Artistic Director for The Theatre 28 Ensemble, Great Britain, and a member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain. He is a registered drama teacher at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a leading British drama school in west London. LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its new principal is Joanna Read, who recently succeeded Peter James...
.